A Ukrainian soldier casts his ballot as other soldiers stand in line to receive ballots at a polling station during presidential elections in Kiev, Ukraine, Sunday, Jan. 17, 2010.

That result would pit Yanukovych against Tymoshenko in a runoff election, expected next month. As president, both could be expected to partly repudiate the legacy of the pro-Western 2004 Orange revolt that brought down a Soviet-style government.

The exit poll is by a consortium of groups that conducted up to 13,000 interviews outside 240 polling places. The poll has a margin of error of 2.5 percentage points.